Rant on cell phone voicemail

[thxgoon]

Is anyone else tired of voicemail these days?

First you start with the greeting (which is even worse if the computer reads off the number one slowwww.... digit at a time) then instructions on how to leave a voice message, options for paging the person and how to access options after leaving the message. First of all who needs instructions to "leave a voice message after the tone"? And who pages anyone anymore? You'd think that caller ID and a voice message would render that option moot. How many times do we have to listen to "when you are finished recording, hang up or press 5 for more options"? Good grief, if you're using a cell phone you probably know to hang up when you're done with your message. I can see the use for options after leaving your message (though I've never used them) but why not just make so pressing any key would activate options and get rid of the message?

I've been timing it at work lately and the average time from dial to being able to begin speaking is about a minute and a half, with half of that listening to the same generic message over and over. Anymore I use text messaging but for work voicemail is a must. It's a time consuming and frustrating experience anymore. Just beep! We know what to do!!!!!

[tonyvdb]

I refuse to use voice mail other than my work phone. My cellphone after 4 rings is call forwarded to my home phone that my wife will take a message for me or I have a answering machine that still uses two full sized casset tapes. Its easy to retrieve messages from it when away none of this "push this button to go here then that button to go there" stuff.
I agree with you, Voice mail is simply a waste of time.

[salvasol]

thxgoon wrote:

... First you start with the greeting (which is even worse if the computer reads off the number one slowwww.... digit at a time)...

This is necessary ... What if you dialed the wrong number???

... then instructions on how to leave a voice message, ...

We have to know the steps ... What if you do something wrong???

... options for paging the person and how to access options after leaving the message. First of all who needs instructions to "leave a voice message after the tone"? And who pages anyone anymore? ...

Me ... I page when I need an inmediate response, but I don't know if the other party will take the time to call or will avoid me.

... How many times do we have to listen to "when you are finished recording, hang up or press 5 for more options"? ...

That's opt to you ...

... I've been timing it at work lately and the average time from dial to being able to begin speaking is about a minute and a half, with half of that listening to the same generic message over and over....

You must love that voice to keep listening for a minute and a half

Seriously ... all my answer were to make a joke, don't be mad

You know that companies try to get as much money as they can ... so, if they know most people will wait until the end of the instructions to leave a message or send a page, they'll will do it because that means "more minutes used" and most of the time by the end of the billing cicle the minutes used will be above those included in the plan ... meaning more $$$$

If you know the instructions by heart ... you don't have to wait, just press the key "ususally 1 or 5" and keep going ...

[Otto]

Yeah, I once asked Verizon if they could turn that "feature" off for me. Apparently, they can't, but they did say that the caller can press # to jump straight to the beep. I think pressing * will get you to voicemail retrieval options. Of course, you have to know you're calling a Verizon customer to use that knowledge (and there may be other companies also using the # to go straight to the beep).

[thxgoon]

salvasol wrote:

We have to know the steps ... What if you do something wrong???

Lol!!!
I didn't know that about the # sign because that's the one thing that's NOT in the message
I'll have to start trying that

[salvasol]

thxgoon wrote:

Lol!!!
I didn't know that about the # sign because that's the one thing that's NOT in the message
I'll have to start trying that

I think is time to ask the companies that use the # to jump to the beep to add that instruction to the beginning of the message ...

I'm sure they will say: Yeah, Right!!! ... and loose some $$$$

[Otto]

Oops, it's actually the * that takes you straight to the beep; the # takes you to VM retrieval options. I had them backwards in my previous post -- sorry!

Yeah, I wish they'd all do * to go to the beep, and then tell you about it in the message. Right.

[Sonnie]

I like it when the message says, "Hi, this is Sonnie... you know what to do!" BEEEEEEP!

[pswayze]

I honestly if I knew how to disable it, I would.

[tenzip]

I share your pain with waiting for long, useless (to me) options. All I want to do is leave a message. Unfortunately, there is no "standard" button for that, I have some friends that I have to press 3 to bypass all the "friendly, neutral, female" voice prompts, and some I have to press 5. At work, it's 8. Work I can remember, but I've given up trying to remember which button to press for other folks, unless I call them a lot. Pressing the wrong button just adds to the misery. "I'm sorry, that option is not available, please press 9 for help, or 1 to repeat the main menu options". Standardizing would be great, but I suspect it will never happen.

I have my own rant about voicemail, and that is that too many people DON'T listen to my message. When my message says I'm out of the office until such-and-such date, and won't be checking my messages, please don't leave me increasingly irate messages asking why I won't return your calls. Several years ago and one employer back, I returned from a hunting trip, and my first day back in the office, had a department head literally screaming at me in the middle of the cube farm because his little printer at his desk had not worked for 3 days. Walking 10' out of his office to the common laser printer was much too difficult, and changing the default printer was equally hard. I told him next time I was in Wyoming hunting for elk, I was going to give my selected elk a name before I shot it, RICK. I found it quite amusing that all of the people who worked for him, any of whom were easily technically capable enough to have changed his default printer for him, chose not to do so. A computer-illiterate technophobe in charge of a CAD/CAM department. I'm so glad I don't work for a huge corporation anymore.

And then there's the voice menu hell. I've begun pressing "0" repeatedly at the beginning of these kind of systems, it will usually get you to a live person. My current workplace has a rule that there WILL be a live person answering the phone during normal office hours. I think we had an all-employee meeting once last year where we broke the rule for half an hour.

[jbron8]

this is why i prefer text messaging. Its so much easier to text than anything else and it never gets awkward